Hotel Aquarius Venice

"A very beautiful hotel, which offers a lovely setting behind the facade and whose rooms are decorated in a modern way with taste and refinement. An excellent breakfast every morning, very varied and always with fresh products, which we were able to appreciate during the seven mornings of our stay. Located in a quiet but lively neighborhood, it is a bit far from the tourist sites and it is better to get a pass for the vaporetto and/or have good stamina for walking and stairs. Very good soundproofing from the outside, significantly less between the rooms but that did not spoil our stay in this highly recommendable hotel whose staff, particularly in the magnificent breakfast room, is charming."

"The hotel itself is very clean and modern. It is conveniently located in Venice (about a 15 min walk with luggage from the train station, or a quick water bus ride and then a 5 min walk). It faces a pleasant piazza where locals gather, and there is a grocery store across the way to purchase things you might need. Breakfast was very good. The issue that we had was that the cleaning lady threw out a bag that we had which contained some food/snacks that we had purchased as well as some containers that we used for medicine, etc. She probably saw the empty water bottle and decided that the whole bag was trash and instead of looking to be sure, she just threw it all out. Not a major issue (if our medicines were in there it would have been an issue), but it left a bad taste in our mouth and left a cloud over our entire stay."

"I want to distinguish between the hotel staff and management. Carlotta was particularly pleasant and helpful, as were the other staff members I interacted with in the reception area and at breakfast. Unfortunately, my experience with Front Desk Manager Fabio Suman was very different. I had originally booked two nights at Hotel Aquarius Venice through Choice Hotels using Choice Privileges points. During our stay, Venice was experiencing an extreme heat wave, with temperatures around 40°C (104°F), while the municipality also shut down electricity in the area for several hours. We were traveling with our two children, making the situation particularly difficult. I spoke directly with Fabio about the circumstances, and Fabio agreed to cancel the second night as the hotel’s resolution to the situation. I accepted that agreement in good faith. He also waived the room upgrade fee. There was no ambiguity from my perspective: the second night was being cancelled. Fabio never told me that the night would remain active or that I would still be responsible for it. He then directed me to contact Choice Rewards regarding the points associated with the cancelled night, explaining that he did not control the points credit and that I would need to work directly with Choice. I followed his instructions and contacted Choice. I later discovered that the hotel had submitted the second-night charge/invoice to Choice and that the points had not been returned. Even more disappointing, after Choice Customer Relations became involved and I copied Choice on my correspondence, Fabio stopped responding to me. I have now spent approximately a month trying to resolve something that should have been straightforward. This is not about the value of one hotel night or the points. It is about trust, accountability, and the way a Choice Hotels property handles an agreement made directly with a guest. When a hotel front desk manager agrees to cancel a night and then directs the guest to Choice regarding the loyalty points associated with that cancellation, the guest should be able to rely on that representation. If the hotel subsequently takes a different position, there should at minimum be clear and transparent communication with the guest. I am a frequent business traveler and an experienced hotel loyalty-program member, and I have dealt with many hotels and customer-service situations over the years. I have rarely encountered an experience like this. What also concerns me is that, after my experience, I reviewed recent guest reviews for Hotel Aquarius Venice and noticed other guests raising concerns about management’s interactions and handling of disagreements. I understand that individual reviews represent individual experiences, and I am not suggesting that every guest has had a negative experience. In fact, my experience with most of the hotel staff was positive. However, when similar concerns appear in multiple guest experiences, I believe they are worth bringing to the attention of Choice Hotels. My concern is specifically with the management and customer-relations approach demonstrated by Fabio Suman in my case. Choice Hotels has been provided with the correspondence documenting what occurred. I hope Choice will review this matter not simply as a loyalty-points dispute, but as a question of trust, accountability, and the standards expected from management at a Choice Hotels property. Operational problems such as extreme heat and power outages can happen. How management treats a guest when those problems occur is a choice. Unfortunately, my experience with Fabio Suman fell well short of what I would expect from a Choice Hotels property."